Vehicles typically include a number of electronic systems such as an audio system (e.g., a radio, speakers, CD player, MP3 player), a clock, a hands-free telephone system, a navigation system, etc. A hands-free telephone system may include a microphone and one or more speakers, which may be integrally mounted in the vehicle. The microphone and speakers may be configured as a component of the vehicle audio system. Hands-free telephone systems have been developed that provide for communication between a vehicle occupant and the occupant's personal mobile telephone, which is located within the vicinity of the vehicle (e.g., in a cradle, in the occupant's pocket or briefcase, etc.). A hands-free telephone system may include a control module configured to receive audio signals via the microphone, in order to provide audio signals from the microphone to the wireless phone and to provide audio signals received from the wireless phone to the speakers in the vehicle. The wireless phone may be connected to the hands-free telephone system (e.g., the control module) by a wireless communication link using a short-range wireless technology such as a BLUETOOTH communications protocol, an IEEE 802.11 communications protocol, etc.
A hands-free telephone system is typically configured to include a phonebook having one or more names and phone numbers stored therein for a user to access when operating the hands-free telephone system. A user's wireless telephone typically is also configured to include a phonebook of names and phone numbers stored in memory. The phonebook entries in the user's wireless phone may be updated from time to time, in order to add new entries or update existing entries. Typically, however, the phonebook information of the hands-free telephone system must be updated separately from the phonebook information in the user's personal wireless phone. Accordingly, the phonebook information in the user's wireless phone may be different from the phonebook information stored in the memory of the hands-free telephone system. Additionally, a user may not be able to access and utilize the phonebook information in the user's personal wireless phone for speech-enabled, hands free dialing via the hands-free telephone system in the vehicle.
It would be advantageous to provide a hands-free telephone system in a vehicle that is configured to: 1) retrieve phonebook information from a first wireless phone upon receiving a command from a user; 2) automatically retrieve phonebook information from a first wireless phone upon establishing a wireless communications link with the wireless phone; 3) generate and/or update a mobile phonebook in the hands-free telephone system based on the phonebook information from a wireless phone, including converting the information to acoustic baseforms so that a user may access and manipulate the mobile phonebook via voice commands and speech recognition; 4) audibly list the entries of the mobile phonebook based on an audible command of the user; and 5) generate a mobile phonebook in the hands-free telephone system using the phonebook information from a second wireless phone, by overwriting the current mobile phonebook entries in the hands-free telephone system, thereby allowing the mobile phonebook to include the phonebook information from the current wireless phone connected to the hands-free telephone system.